OK, time for the first game in which I can actually watch Andrew McCutchen. Yesterday’s contest wasn’t televised here in the ‘Burgh. It also marks an excellent opportunity for the Bucs to move closer to .500 with a weekend series with last place Houston.

Alright, now for the negatives. Houston is 4-2 against us this year, and all of those games were at PNC Park. Jeff Karstens (although he has looked much better of late) is going tonight. Mike Hampton absolutely owns us. Tonight could be ugly.

If you hadn’t heard, Nate McLouth is still an Atlanta Brave. His first game with the team last night was rained out–they play the Brewers tonight at 7:30. Remember, the Bucs will head to Atlanta on Monday.

Various media outlets tried to make fun of the Pirates and [this story] pertaining to the McLouth trade:

On Thursday, at the clubhouse table where McLouth used to play cards with relievers Sean Burnett and Jesse Chavez, a candle bearing McLouth’s uniform No. 13 was lit, along with a photo of him in uniform, the Post-Gazette reported. “We’ll miss him,” Burnett said.

OK, I thought that was really weird too. Until I read the next paragraph of [the PG article]…

A bit dramatic?

Not by design: McLouth was that duo’s card-playing partner on that table, and he was, of course, traded Wednesday night to the Atlanta Braves for three prospects. There almost always was a candle there.

Sheesh. Still mad about the trade? [Read this]. We’ll have more trade-defending material up soon. You may also want to see how one of the prospects we acquired, Charlie Morton, did in his Indianapolis debut last night.